Hi Ioana, The ctrl n and ctrl p access key combinations for reading the next and previous messages in a mailing list thread are specific to the Mail Archive site, which supports access key shortcuts for all browsers that offer them. This means that if you are reading the Mail Archives on a Windows computer using Internet Explorer you'd use the Alt key as your access key, and use the shortcuts of Alt n and Alt p They specifically define 6 combinations that are listed in their FAQ, where you apply the access key prefix appropriate to your operating system and browser. So, if I were using FIrefox on Windows or Linux, I'd use Alt+Shift for the access key prefix. The six shortcut key combinations given in the FAQ, listed by shortcut, mnemonic, and action are (for Safari):
Ctrl+n (next) later message by thread Ctrl+p (previous) earlier message by thread Ctrl+f (forward) later message by date Ctrl+b (back) earlier message by date Ctrl+i (index) chronological index Ctrl+c (contents) thread index The Mail archive FAQ may be found at: http://www.mail-archive.com/faq.html You can browse through the FAQ links to items such as "Do you support keyboard shortcuts?" (which I summarized above) or "What is the search syntax?" Using the Mail archive site to search for past discussion posts is like being able to do a Google search on all the topics discussed on the list. It's actually even better than trying to search in the Google Groups archive for this list, because the search algorithm to find relevant posts is better, and the options for adding terms to search by author, subject, date range along with wild cards and Boolean modifiers are also easier to use, type in, and also to modify a search and then relaunch. However, because the basic search features are so good, I rarely have to use features such as date range, etc. Your question was specifically about reading down threads with the Ctrl+n keyboard shortcuts. That's one of the features I really like about using the Mail Archive site for this list: when I find a topic or answer that I want to know more about, I can also quickly find out the context and the related discussion from other posts in the thread. This also helps in the case of one line or one word answers, when someone is answering a question earlier in the thread, and you can't tell from their message alone what question they're answering. And what's great about the access key shortcuts is that they work for different operating system/browser combinations. So if you're using Internet Explorer on Windows, or Firefox on linux, you can still use keyboard shortcuts to read up and down threads of posts. Also, the Mail Archive web pages of posts are straight text, apart from links that you might insert in your messages, and are very easy to navigate. The address of the Mail Archive page for an archived list is simply the posting address of that list appended to the mail Mail Archive web page that is terminated with a slash: http://www.mail-archive.com/ So for the URL for the macvisionaries archived page this is: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] This page shows links to the most recent posts in threaded "contents" view. If I want to view this as a chronological index, with the link to the most recent post first, I can press cntrl+i, to view the messages by date instead of by thread. I find it convenient to use group mode web navigation with the threaded entries, but either DOM or group mode settings can be used here. If you use the link for "earlier messages" in either viewing mode by thread or by date, you can view earlier listed links back through about 15 pages, I think -- something like the last 3000 entries. Usually, I'll either view the most recent page at the Mail Archive in threaded view, if I'm reading the list when I'm traveling, and have gone "no mail" for a while, or else I'll go directly to the text box, type in some search terms, and then press return to get search results. Mail archive searches also let you use wild cards if you don't know the exact spelling, and will also let you use information about the poster of a topic. So, for example, suppose I read a reference in someone's post about a podcast that Allison had done on Amadeus Pro, and wanted to find out where I could get this by using the Mail Archive. Also, assume I wasn't sure whether Allison's name was spelled with one "l" or two. I could type into the search box: "from:Al*ison Amadeus podcast" without the quotation marks. The first link would give me Allison's post describing where to find her podcast on using Amadeus Pro. It's more common to use wild cards like the "*" I typed in the middle of Allison's name when I don't know the exact spelling of a search term, but still want to pull up results. In general, if I'm doing a topic search, I won't use the "from:" argument -- just search terms. But occasionally, if I remember who gave a particular hint, or want to check whether Anne said something about Pages or Ricardo gave instructions about Garageband, I'll type "from:" with a colon after the word, and then type in the name of the poster I want to query. Searches are not case sensitive, but the way. Searching the mail archive is a great source of information when you're new to a list, and want to read what has been said about topics you might find interesting, but don't yet know a lot about. It's also often easier to use if you're not an English speaker, and don't feel comfortable about posting questions, but want to get information. The search results come up as simple links, with the subject of the post, the date, and a brief part of the text related to the search terms, followed by the name of the poster. Usually, that's enough to let you locate the posts that are of interest, and you can activate the links of posts you want to read in detail. Then, you can also read up or down the thread with ctrl+p or ctrl+n. Usually, the results you want will come up in the first few links, but if you decide to revise your query, I just go back to a previous page and modify my search terms, then press return again. If you want to force the results to be displayed in chronological order, instead of search relevancy order, add a term like "sort: newest" or "sort: oldest" to your search, where the word "sort" is followed by a colon. Since the searches run according to relevancy, you'll find answers even when the subject lines are not helpful. HTH. Cheers, Esther On Jul 10, 2012, at 7:08 AM, Ioana Gandrabur wrote: > HI all, > > I recently got a great recommendation off list from Esther. Informative as > usually. I learned I could go to next or previous message in the mail-archive > page using ctrl n and ctrl p respectively. I tried looking up this shortcut > in the safari help menu and could not find any reference to such a shortcut. > IS it page specific or works for any safari window and if so what does it do? > > THanks for your help! > > Ioana > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
